


Healing

by PinkRae



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Comfort/Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24982510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkRae/pseuds/PinkRae
Summary: The Beacon has fallen and their world has been turned upside down. Destruction, fear, death... Mourning the loss of a loved one is difficult. But it makes it just that much easier if you have someone by your side and Ruby and Jaune are lucky to have each other in these hard times.---Just a small collection of drabbles of some in-between scenes exploring what Ruby and Jaune's relationship could've been.
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc/Ruby Rose
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Healing

_ “I want you to know that I’m just happy to be a part of your life.” _ Pyrrha’s voice echoed in her mind over and over again. Ever since that night in the woods. If Ruby’s heart hadn’t felt heavy enough  _ then _ , it definitely felt like a rock in her chest now. The guilt that she was feeling was building inside her more and more with each passing day. Of course, she thought of her friends, everyone who she’d lost after the Fall of Beacon every single day of her life, but after having heard Pyrrha’s voice in that recording Jaune played on repeat to train in his lonesome in the middle of the night- it truly started weighing on her in ways that she couldn’t have imagined it would. 

_ “I’ll always be here for you, Jaune.” _ And yet- she wasn’t. Pyrrha was supposed to be here, with all of them, with Jaune. But Ruby had failed to save her like she promised. She was too inexperienced, too caught up with other things, too-  _ slow _ . And it cost Pyrrha her life. Did he remind himself of that fact every day as well? Did he hate her? Did he hate her just like she did herself?

A heavy sigh left her lips as silver eyes looked up at the night sky. Everyone had gone to sleep already, but she was too haunted by her dreams, her own thoughts to join them. Ruby was sitting in a small clearing in the woods leaning slightly backwards as she propped herself on her palms behind her back, her legs stretched out before her. It was quiet here. Peaceful. If only her heart could be as peaceful as this forest at night. The calm and quiet only made her thoughts louder and she seemed to be unable to do anything about it. She was also too afraid to speak up about it to her friends, as to not burden them any more than they already were. For the first time in very long, she felt so alone… The grief, the guilt, the weight of the whole world pressed on her shoulders and there was nothing she could do to just shake it all off. 

Pyrrha… Penny… Professor Ozpin… They were gone forever… Yang was left injured and broken in ways that no one but her would understand, Weiss and Blake weren’t here either… It was just her, left here to deal with it all on her own. But it was so  _ so _ hard. Unbearable sometimes. Even under that smile of hers, it was always there, in the back of her mind, that nagging feeling that she could’ve done  _ more _ .

“I’m sorry…” Ruby whispered into the darkness and felt her vision turn blurry. No matter how much she tried to fight it back, tears found their way down her cheeks and there was no stopping them. Letting out a cry, the girl pulled up her legs wrapping her arms tightly around them and pressed her forehead against her knees. She hadn’t come out here to cry, she hadn’t meant to, but having kept it all in for so long it just seemed to have burst out of her. And so here she was, crying her heart out, finally.

“Pyrrha, Penny… I’m so sorry… I should have been there for you… I should have been faster… stronger… braver… I’m sorry…”

“You should stop blaming yourself.” Her quiet sobs stopped abruptly once she heard a voice behind her. Gasping in surprise, she quickly raised her head and turned it around to see-

“J-Jaune?” Ruby watched him walk out into the clearing from the cover of the woods with that ever so melancholy smile he wore as of late and somehow it made her heart ache even more. “I’m sorry- I didn’t mean to wake you up-” In an instant, she did her best to wipe her tears and dry her cheeks with her hands.

“Stop,” Jaune requested softly and walked up to her, taking a seat on the ground right next to her. “You have nothing to apologize for. Nor to blame yourself for.”

Her heart skipped a beat at his last words and she couldn’t help but to avert her gaze. Just how long had he been standing there? Did he hear everything? Somehow… Hearing these words hurt even more. She had nothing to blame herself for? How untrue was that!

“Of course, I do,” she responded quietly with a bit of bitterness in her voice, a small frown forming on her face as she observed the grass by her feet. “There is  _ so much _ I could’ve done for them.”

“We  _ all _ could have. Ruby,” the blonde sighed and shifted in his spot to face her, crossing his legs and resting his arms on his knees as he leaned slightly to the side trying to catch her gaze, “I beat myself over it every day too. I should’ve done this, I should’ve been that, I should’ve gone there. And it’s-  _ not helping _ .” His voice was gentle, even if filled with the same pain his eyes were as he watched her. It truly hurt him seeing her like this. 

At first it seemed that his words weren’t getting through to her, but after a moment of silence Ruby released a sigh and turned her head to finally look at him. His eyes were so sad. But his smile was heartwarming and understanding. And without truly registering it initially, she responded with a smile of her own as well.

“Yeah, you’re right, it really isn’t, is it?” She let out a silent chuckle before her features turned more somber again as she looked up at the sky, putting together the words she wanted to say next. “I guess, I just- I wish I knew how to deal with it all, you know? I wish it got easier…” Her grip around her knees tightened slightly as she pushed them closer to her chest. 

“Does it ever get easier?” Jaune asked and followed her gaze up to the sky, straightening one of his legs out while pulling the other up so he could rest his elbow on the knee, propping himself up on his other hand. At this question, she had to think for a moment. 

“Well… Yes, but- not  _ fully _ , I guess,” Ruby tilted her head slightly to the side, trying to come up with the right words. “When my mom died, I didn’t understand any of it. I didn’t know what to do, how to feel about it, how to go on with my life without her in it. But, you know, time kinda passed and I started understanding more, it stopped hurting as much. Even though it still lingers.” Her eyes turned to look at him, a soft smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “I guess we all just need some time. We haven’t had a whole lot of that since…  _ everything _ .”

“Yeah,” he let out a heavy sigh and nodded lightly, hanging his head down. It was painful to know that Pyrrha was gone. It was even more painful to realize that there was nothing else to do to ease this pain other than just  _ wait it out _ . She was the first girl who ever truly loved him, even if he was too dense to notice it at first. But he loved her too. And it was just so- So unfair! She had her whole life ahead of her! All those dreams, ambitions she had, he was a hundred percent certain she would have achieved them. Because she was strong and driven like that. Why did it have to be him that was alive and not her? It was such a cruel joke of fate. He didn’t deserve to be here with her gone… All it did was create this huge hole in his chest that seemed to get bigger by the day. It ached and ached and often it became so overbearing he just wanted to scream in the dead of the night. 

“Jaune…” A soft whisper brought him back to his senses, although he realized his vision had blurred up. Before he could say or do anything, arms wrapped around his neck and held him tightly in a warm embrace.

“Ruby, I… I’m sorry,” slightly panicking that he had let himself get overcome with emotions, he quickly apologized in embarrassment and tried to free himself of her grip so he could run back to their campsite and pretend this never happened. But she was having none of it and refused to let him go.

“Don’t apologize, silly!” The girl giggled in a more chipper manner that was very much Ruby-like and kept holding him close. “It’s alright to cry, Jaune. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Cry it all out. It’ll make you feel better, even if for a bit.” 

A shaky breath left his lips as the blonde buried his face in her shoulder, arms slowly wrapping around her as he simply… let it all go. To be completely honest, he hadn’t cried a whole much ever since Pyrrha’s death. Just like Ruby said, they hadn’t had much time for mourning. They were always moving forwards, always fighting something new, always reaching for a goal. There weren’t many moments like this when you could just sit down and cry to yourself. And even if he had, he spent it all on training. To get better, to get stronger, to become the man Pyrrha believed him to be. Mostly to just get his thoughts somewhere else. But now that he was here with Ruby holding him in her arms, he couldn’t help but to just let all these emotions surface. The loss, the sadness, anger, helplessness, love, regret, everything… It simply burst out of him, much like it had happened to Ruby mere minutes ago, who was silently crying along with him as well, overwhelmed with all of  _ his _ emotions combined with her own. No words were necessary after this. Just two friends bonding over tears that had been held in for too long. It was…  _ healing.  _ For the both of them.


End file.
